Iranian Journal of Materials Science and Engineering

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Nitriding is a surface treatment technique used to introduce nitrogen into metallic materials to improve their surface hardness, mechanical properties, wear resistance and corrosion resistance. In this research, the effects of plasma nitriding parameters including frequency and duty cycle were investigated on samples with different grooves dimensions. Steel blocks prepared from DIN1.2344 hot working steel were plasma nitride at 500 °C under the atmosphere contents of %75H2-%25N2, the duty cycles of 40%, 60%, 80%, and the frequencies of 8, 10 kHz for 5 hours. Then characteristics and micro hardness's of the nitrided samples were investigated using SEM, XRD, and Vickers Micro Hardness method. The results of the experiments indicated that with increasing frequency, the duty cycle, and the thickness of the grooves, the roughness of the surfaces increased. With an increase in duty cycle from 40% to 80%, the hardness of the surface rose and the thickness of the compound layer built up. Hollow cathode effect occurred in the samples with small grooves and high duty cycle in plasma nitriding. This will result in over heating of the sample which leads to a decrease in the slope of hardness values from the surface to the core of the sample and also a decrease in the diffused depth of nitrogen. The compound layer of the treated samples consisted of @ : Fe4N and : Fe2-3N phases and the proportion of the A to @ increased with the decrease in the duty cycle. Increasing the frequency did not affect the proportion of phases and micro hardness of the samples.

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The wear mechanism of plasma electrolytic nitrocarburised (PEN/C) 316L stainless steel samples was studied after a pin on disc wear test. The surface morphology of samples after application of PEN/C process was studied using scanning electron microscope technique. The sliding tracks resulting from the wear tests on the treated specimens indicated no signs of plastic deformation and adhesive wear, but the slider wear particles were trapped in the micro-craters of the counterface. The results showed that this mechanism may further improve the tribological performance of the system by increasing the wear resistance and lowering friction. PEN/C treated surfaces are therefore believed to have the potential to limit metal-to-metal wear mechanisms on a microscale, if contact pressures are sufficiently low

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Crystallization kinetics of Fe52Cr18Mo7B16C4Nb3 alloy was evaluated using X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetric (DSC) tests and TEM observations in this research work. In effect, crystallization and growth mechanisms were investigated using DSC tests in four different heating rates (10, 20, 30, 40 K/min) and kinetic models (i.e. Kissinger- Starink, Ozawa, and Matusita methods). Results showed that a two -step crystallization process occurred in the alloy in which α - Fe and Fe3B phases were crystallized respectively in the structure after heat treatment. Activation energy for the first step of crystallization i.e., α - Fe was measured to be 421 (kj/mol) and 442 (kj/mol) according to both Kissinger- Starink and Ozawa models respectively. Further, Avrami exponent calculated from DSC curves was 1.6 and a two -dimensional diffusion controlled mechanism with decreasing nucleation rate was observed in the alloy. TEM observations reveal that crystalline α – Fe phase nucleated in the structure of the alloy in an average size of 10 nm and completely mottled morphology

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The effects of H2SO4 concentration on the electrochemical behaviour of passive films formed on AISI 304 stainless steel were investigated using by potentiodynamic polarization, Mott–Schottky analysis and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Potentiodynamic polarization indicated that the corrosion potentials were found to shift towards negative direction with an increase in solution concentration. Also, the corrosion current densities increase with an increase in solution concentration. Mott–Schottky analysis revealed that the passive films behave as n-type and p-type semiconductors at potentials below and above the flat band potential, respectively. Also, Mott– Schottky analysis indicated that the donor and acceptor densities are in the range 1021 cm-3 and increased with solution concentration. EIS data showed that the equivalent circuit Rs(Qdl[Rct(RrQr)]) by two time constants is applicable.

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This paper was aimed to address the modeling and optimization of factors affecting the corrosive wear of low alloy and high carbon chromium steel balls. Response surface methodology, central composite design (CCD) was employed to assess the main and interactive effects of the parameters and also to model and minimize the corrosive wear of the steels. The second-order polynomial regression model was proposed for relationship between the corrosion rates and relevant investigated parameters. Model fitted to results indicated that the linear effects of all of factors, interactive effect of pH and grinding time and the quadratic effects of pH and balls charge weight, were statistically significant in corrosive wear of low alloy steel balls. The significant parameters in the corrosive wear of high carbon chromium steel balls were the linear effects of all factors, the interactions effect of solid concentration, mill speed, mill throughout, grinding time, and the quadratic effects of pH and solid content. Also, the results showed that within the range of parameters studied, the corrosion rate of 78.38 and 40.76 could be obtained for low alloy and high carbon chromium steel balls, respectively.

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In this study, effect of immersion time on the electrochemical behaviour of AISI 321 stainless steel (AISI 321) in 0.1 M H 2SO 4 solution under open circuit potential (OCP) conditions was evaluated by potentiodynamic polarization, Mott–Schottky analysis and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Mott–Schottky analysis revealed that the passive films behave as n-type and p-type semiconductors at potentials below and above the flat band potential, respectively. Also, Mott–Schottky analysis indicated that the donor and acceptor densities are in the range 1021 cm-3 and increased with the immersion time. EIS results showed that the best equivalent circuit presents two time constants: The high-medium frequencies time constant can be correlated with the charge transfer process and the low frequencies time constant has been associated with the redox processes taking place in the surface film. According to this equivalent circuit, the polarization resistance (interfacial impedance) initially increases with the immersion time (1 to 12 h), and then it is observed to decreases. This variation is fully accordance with potentiodynamic polarization results

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This study is focused on the effects of electroslag remelting by prefused slag (CaO, Al2O3, and CaF2) on macrostructure and reduction of inclusions in the medical grad of 316LC (316LVM) stainless steel. Results showed that in order to obtain uniform ingot structures during electroslag remelting, the shape and depth of the molten pool should be carefully controlled. High melting rates lead to deeper pool depths and interior radial solidification characteristics. Furthermore, decrease in the melting rate caused more reduction of non-metallic inclusions. In practice, large shrinkage cavities formed during the conventional casting process in the primary ingots were the cause of the fluctuation in the melting rate, pool depth and extension of equiaxal crystals zone

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Four compositions of austenitic Mn-Cr steels have been developed successfully for in-vessel component materials in power plant industry. The phase stability of these Mn-Cr steels was studied by and X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns. XRD patterns have shown that the matrix of these Mn-Cr steels is a single γ-phase structure. The potentiodynamic polarisation curves suggested that these fabricated Mn-Cr steels showed passive behaviour in 0.1M H2SO 4solution. Therefore, semiconducting behaviour of passive film formed on these fabricated Mn-Cr steels in 0.1M H2SO 4 solution was evaluated by Mott–Schottky analysis. This analysis revealed that passive films behave as n-type and p-type semiconductors. Based on the Mott–Schottky analysis, it was also shown that donor and acceptor densities are in the order of 1021 cm -3 and are comparable for other austenitic stainless steels in acidic environments

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The aim of the present study is the prediction of critical conditions (including critical strain and flow stress) for the initiation of dynamic recrystallization during thermo-mechanical processing of plain carbon steels. For this propose, torsion tests were conducted at different temperature (1050, 1100 and 1150˚C) and strain rates (0.002, 0.02 and 0.2/s). All flow curves showed a peak stress indicating that dynamic recrystallization occurs during hot deformation. The critical stress and strain were then determined based on change in strain hardening rate as a function of flow stress. Finally, the effect of deformation conditions on these parameters was analyzed.

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Compression springs were prepared from Cr-Si high strength spring steel and coated with pure Zn and ZnNi by electroplating process. The effect of baking after electroplating as well as applying an electroless nickel interlayer on the fatigue and fatigue corrosion of the springs was investigated. The results were analyzed using weibull statistical model. A considerable improvement (8%) in fatigue life of the electroplated springs with Zn-Ni was observed in the presence of Ni interlayer. In addition, baking of these electroplated springs improved fatigue life by 4%. The fatigue life under salt spraying conditions, however, has demonstrated remarkable reduction by 40%, 34% and 30% for Zn-Ni plating, backed and unbaked Zn-Ni plating containing Ni interlayer, respectively

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In this paper, the effect of MgO, BaO, Na 2 O and SrO addition to a pre-melted CaO-Al2O3 -Si 2 O synthetic slag on sulfur removal from plain carbon steel was studied under the same experimental conditions. The slags were pre-melted at 1400°C in an electric resistant furnace and desulfurization experiments were carried out in a high frequency induction furnace. The results showed that the optimum reaction time for desulfurization was 15 min. It was found that while SrO addition to the ternary slag enhances the sulfur removal capability, MgO, Na 2O and BaO additions reduce desulfurization efficiency of the ternary slag. Moreover, it was observed that restricting access to oxygen from the atmosphere by using a covered crucible, could increase desulfurization efficiency of the slag by more than two fold

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Hot dip aluminizing was carried out on the low carbon steel rod under optimized conditions. The aluminized samples were further oxidized at 1000̊C in air atmosphere at two different times of 20 and 60 minutes. Microstructure study and phase analysis were studied by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction methods, respectively. The characterization of the coating showed that, Fe2 Al5 has been the major phase formed on the surface of specimen before heat treatment. Following the oxidation of the coating at high temperature, Al 2O3 was formed on the surface of coating while Fe 2 Al5 transformed into FeAl and Fe 3 Al which are favorable to the hot corrosion resistance of the coating. Corrosion resistance of aluminized samples before and after heat treatment was evaluated by rotating the samples in the molten aluminum at 700 ̊C for various times and the dissolution rate was determined. The obtained results showed that by oxidizing the coating at high temperature, the corrosion resistance of the samples in molten aluminum improves significantly.

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Nowadays steel balls wear is a major problem in mineral processing industries and forms a significant part of the grinding cost. Different factors are effective on balls wear. It is needed to find models which are capable to estimate wear rate from these factors. In this paper a back propagation neural network (BPNN) and multiple linear regression (MLR) method have been used to predict wear rate of steel balls using some significant parameters including, pH, solid content, throughout of grinding circuit, speed of mill, charge weight of balls and grinding time. The comparison between the predicted wear rates and the measured data resulted in the correlation coefficients (R), 0.977 and 0.955 for training and test data using BPNN model. However, the R values were 0.936 and 0.969 for training and test data by MLR method. In addition, the average absolute percent relative error (AAPE) obtained 2.79 and 4.18 for train and test data in BPNN model, respectively. Finally, Analysis of the predictions shows that the BPNN and MLR methods could be used with good engineering accuracy to directly predict the wear rate of steel balls.

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In this paper, the influence of heat treatment on PH17-7 stainless steel spring was evaluated. Precipitation hardening phenomenon of  PH 17-7 steel was evaluated in three stages. First, the spring constant changes with time and temperature was evaluated. Second, the spring constant changes with respect to its original length at constant temperature and time with blocking (spring length after compression, 18 and 21 mm) were investigated.  And finally, the spring heat treatment at 480 °C for 80 min and then holding at 230 °C in oil bath for 60 min without blocking were investigated. The results showed that the use of 18 mm block have large spring constant than 21 mm block. The optimal conditions (480°C for 80 min) for this spring to reaching maximum spring constant were determined.

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Jatropha curcas leaves extract was tested as a green corrosion inhibitor for mild steel in aqueous hydrochloric acid solution using gravimetric and thermometric techniques. The results reveal that the inhibition efficiency vary with concentration of the leaf extract and the time of immersion. Maximum inhibition efficiency was found to be 95.92% in 2M HCl with 0.5 g/l concentration of the extract in gravimetric method, while 87.04% was obtained in thermometric method. The inhibiting effect was attributed to the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, tannins and phenol in the extract. The adsorption processes of the Jatropha curcas leaves extract onto the mild steel is consistent with the assumptions of Langmuir isotherm model and also found to be spontaneous. From the results, a physical adsorption mechanism is proposed for the adsorption of Jatropha curcas leaves extract onto mild steel surface.

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In this study, an  organic compound  inhibitor, namely N-benzyl-N-(4-chlorophenyl)-1H-tetrazole-5-amine (NBTA), was synthesized and the role of this inhibitor for corrosion protection of stainless steel (SS) exposed to 0.5 M H₂SO₄ was investigated using electrochemical, and quantum analysis. By taking advantage of potentiodynamic polarization, the inhibitory action of NBTA was found to be mainly mixed type with dominant anodic inhibition. The effectiveness of the inhibitor was also indicated using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Moreover, to provide further insight into the mechanism of inhibition, quantum chemical calculations of the inhibitor were performed. The adsorption of NBTA onto the SS surface followed the Langmuir adsorption model with the free energy of adsorption ΔG⁰_ads of of -7.88 kJ mol^-1. Quantum chemical calculations were employed to give further insight into the mechanism of inhibition action of NBTA.

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Till now, different constitutive models have been applied to model the hot deformation flow curves of different materials. In this research, the hot deformation flow stress of API X65 pipeline steel was modeled using the power law equation with strain dependent constants. The results was compared with the results of the other previously examined constitutive equations including the Arrhenius equation, the equation with the peak stress, peak strain and four constants and the equation developed based on a power function of Zener-Hollomon parameter and a third order polynomial function of strain power a constant number. Root mean square error (RMSE) criterion was used to assess the performance of the understudied models. It was observed that the power law equation with strain dependent constants has a better performance (lower RMSE) than that of the other understudied constitutive equations except for the equation with the peak stress, peak strain and four constants. The overall results can be used for the mathematical simulation of hot deformation processes

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Nowadays, Ni-free austenitic stainless steels are being developed rapidly and high price of nickel is one of the most important motivations for this development. At present research a new FeCrMn steel was designed and produced based on Fe-Cr-Mn-C system. Comparative studies on microstructure and high temperature mechanical properties of  new steel and AISI 316 steel were done. The results showed that new FeCrMn developed steel has single austenite phase microstructure, and its tensile strength and toughness were higher than those of 316 steel at 25, 200,350 and 500°C. In contrast with 316 steel, the new FeCrMn steel did not show strain induced transformation and dynamic strain aging phenomena during tensile tests that represented higher austenite stability of new developed steel. Lower density and higher strength of the new steel caused higher specific strength in comparison with the 316 one that can be considered as an important advantage in structural applications but in less corrosive environment

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- The mechanism of diffusion layer growth in plasma nitrided coatings applied on a St52 steel using an active screen is investigated. The nitriding was performed at 450,500 and 550 ◦C temperature nitriding times of 5, 10 and 15 h, in a gas mixture containing 20 vol. % H2: 80 vol. % N2 and DC-pulsed plasma nitriding unit.

The surface, cross section and the thickness of diffusion of specimens was studied in terms of optical and scanning electron microscopy. According to the measurements of diffusion layer thickness, values of Q and D₀ for nitrogen diffusion in substrate were calculated as 50585 (j/mol) and 4.11×10^-10 (m²/s)respectively. The variations of depth of hardness during nitriding period was determined

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In industry, the cost of production is an important factor and it is preferred to use conventional and low cost procedures for producing the parts. Heat treatment cycles and alloying additions are the key factors affecting the microstructure and mechanical properties of the cast steels. In this study an attempt was made to evaluate the influence of minor Mo addition on the microstructure and mechanical properties of conventionally heat treated cast micro-alloyed steels. The results of Jominy and dilatometry tests and also microstructural examinations revealed that Mo could effectively increase the hardenability of the investigated steel and change the microstructure features of the air-cooled samples. Acicular microstructure was the consequence of increasing the hardenability in Mo-added steel. Besides, it was found that Mo could greatly affect the isothermal bainitic transformation and higher fraction of martensite after cooling (from isothermal temperature) was due to the Mo addition. The results of impact test indicated that the microstructure obtained in air-cooled Mo-added steel led to better impact toughness (28J) in comparison with the base steel (23J). Moreover, Mo-added steel possessed higher hardness (291HV), yield (524MPa) and tensile (1108MPa) strengths compared to the base one.